Assistance from R & RK owners

[Reckless Rat]

Is it possible that in the distant past your car had suffered accident damage and this was a repair? You never know.
The timber across the top looks different.

[Chris Garner]

Reckers,
That possibility had occurred to me but I have the full history of the car from day one. Much of it is very detailed and it does relate to one accident but only when the n/s front wing and part of the door was damaged.
Of course I can't be certain. One thing that does lead me to think that the rear is original is the rough way the interior aluminium is painted black - a feature often seen on Sevens of this period.

[Mike Costigan]

Well, Chris, there's no evidence of a central timber in your photo - I would expect some signs of the reinforcement bracket on the prop-shaft tunnel if it had been there originally.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

How tight were the manufacturing processes?

One can imagine someone talking footie to his mate, fitting an upright "Oh bother, it is supposed to be in the middle ....", and deciding it is quicker to fit another to the other side and hope the foreman doesn't notice.

[Chris Garner]

Very tight I would say. You couldn't run such a Company as efficiently as they did without strict production procedures in place.